Frankie J Music:

		List Price: $13.98		Label: RCA Salesrank: 56614 Released: October 15, 1996
		Our Price: $0.98
		Used Price: $0.01
		Media: Audio CD

Runnin' Wild Track Listing:
1. Runnin' Wild
2. A String Of Pearls
3. Moonlight Serenade
4. Chattanooga Choo-choo
5. Nearness Of You
6. My Blue heaven
7. Timothy Morrison: Song Of The Volga Boatmen
8. Sunrise Serenade
9. (I've Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo
10. Serenade In Blue
11. The Anvil Chorus
12. St. Luis Blues March
13. A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
14. American Patrol
15. Little Brown Jug
16. In The Mood

Runnin' Wild Reviews:
Lockhart's Debut Recording with the Boston Pops
2004-08-13 - RUNNING WILD is collection of Glenn Miller favorites and is Keith Lockhart's debut recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The musical quality is good. While it does not demonstrate the style that Lockhart would later develop with the orchestra, it certainly offers glimpses of what is to come. Perhaps the recording's strongest tracks are the musical numbers with guests: John Pizzarelli and the King Singers, especially the album's rendition of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". One of Lockhart's greatest strengths is selecting guests to accompany the orchestra and this album is a foretaste of what is later to come, particularly on the Celtic and Mexican collections released later in Lockhart's tenure. While the album is good, and Lockhart seems to enjoy conducting these Big Band pieces, his rendition of "In the Mood" is missing something, which is surprising since this work is such a staple at Pops concerts, but even a not quiet the best rendition of any piece by the Boston Pops is still far better than much of what is available.

"Runnin' Wild" will get you "In the Mood" for Big Band tunes
2003-11-08 - When John Williams stepped down as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra after 14 successful seasons, the talented young Keith Lockhart was chosen as his replacement. Looking more like a college freshman than music director of one of America's most famous orchestras, Lockhart has proved to be just as adept and popular as Williams and the late Arthur Fiedler.

1996's Runnin' Wild is a collection of songs made famous by Big Band era orchestra leader Glenn Miller, whose civilian and later Army Air Force bands provided audiences with music to dance to (and love to) before and during World War II. Before his mysterious death in December 1944, Miller's band and featured vocalists gave the world such beloved swing standards as "In The Mood," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "A String of Pearls," and his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade."

Listen to this album, close your eyes, and the Boston Pops Orchestra transports you back to the 1940s, with young men in uniform dancing with either their wives, sweethearts, or USO girls to the fast-paced "Runnin' Wild"...gently swaying the sweet "A String of Pearls" (featured in the film The Glenn Miller Story)...or sharing that last sweet bit of lovemaking to the slow beat of "Moonlight Serenade."

Of the 16 selections, "Moonlight Serenade" is the one I am most familiar with, having heard it as incidental music or "source" material in so many World War II movies or documentaries. It's slow, gentle, romantic yet sensual, and it's the only "Glenn Miller" song actually written by the bandleader. Originally titled "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep," it was a big hit in 1939 and was the theme song for both Miller's and Tex Beneke's bands. The Pops' performance of it captures its air of nostalgia perfectly, and the clarinet solo by Thomas Martin is simply fabulous.

Modern standards singer John Pizzarelli and The King's Singers show their stuff on several tracks, most vividly so in "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," which was another chart-topping hit for Miller in 1941, the year the U.S. entered World War II. Pizzarelli has a way of channeling the great vocalists of the era, with his easy-to-listen voice and flawless delivery. The King's Singers are wonderful backup in other songs, including "Serenade in Blue" and "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo."

As a soloist, Pizzarelli shines in the more romantic (and slower) "The Nearness of You," a song that might have been on a serviceman's mind when reading a letter from his wife or girlfriend.

Another sentimental favorite where Pizzarelli performs well is 1940's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," a song introduced in Britain and popularized not only by Glenn Miller but also Guy Lombardo and Sammy Kay.

Several genres also get the Glenn Miller treatment, such as opera (Verdi's "The Anvil Chorus," from Il Trovatore), vaudeville ("My Blue Heaven") blues ("The St. Louis Blues March") and even Russian traditional songs ("Volga Boatmen").

So if you want to get "In the Mood" and have a good time listening to a fun Boston Pops Orchestra album, Runnin' Wild is definitely worth getting.

Great fun!
2000-11-02 - I bought this CD three days ago and it hasn't left my CD player since. There is nothing like waking up and putting on "In the Mood" to start your day, or listening to "Moonlight Serenade" to end it.

Okay, but lose the cover
2000-05-31 - The Pops are a Boston institution. They have been a tradition for many and familiar to most. I have been to the Pops probably as often as to Fenway Park. I like both and find great comfort in each.

What happens with much of what the Pops attempt here is goofy. The cover art, is I presume, similar to the old Arthur Fiedler covers where he wore a funny coat or hat and tried to look less symphonic and more silly. Give it up.

The strength of the Pops is the traditional, predictable format and arrangements that are as easy to identify as your own child. That too is the unfortunate part of the Pops. There needs to be a little something new here.

So if you enjoy the traditional string arrangements and percussion of the Pops this will not disappoint you. If you are trying to get a youngster excited about this music you might more easily find an elevator and listen to the musak.

Classical arrangements, novelty music and patriotic songs are the best the Pops can provide. The swing music just doesn't do it for me.

Runnin' wild? Maybe with a walker.

Swing at its best!
2000-01-08 - I'll tell you a little story about this CD from Keith Lockhart. I'm a baby-boomer brought up on swing and am constantly looking for quality big band recordings. I bought this album several years ago when it was first released and I loved it. Whenever I played it at home, my 18 y/o daughter gave me the business about my "old fogey" music. One day, however, I happened to come home unexpectedly and there she was in the family room with "String of Pearls" at nearly full volume. I bought her the album when she went to college and she says that she's since converted nearly half the dorm to swing. This is probably the best recording of big band sounds ever. Also look at "Pops Stoppers" which is half big band tunes and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". Both are excellent as well.